Tuesday
Taking the dinghy ashore late morning we met up with Al on the beach, Al had very kindly offered to give us a tour around the island. Al, Leanne and Georgie have been coming to the island for over 20 years for holidays. We thoroughly understood why they kept coming back as Magnetic Island is like a little slice of paradise! It was awesome to have their local knowledge about where to go and what to see.
We were fortunate enough to be able to book our COVID injections on the Island, which meant that we would be staying in the area for the next 3 weeks until we had our second injection. We were not concerned as Magnetic Island ticked all the boxes on our ultimate location checklist!
As part of our tour we were shown the location of the local gelato bar. It goes without saying that we had to drop in for an ice-cream to see if it was up to standard.
Wednesday
The first walk on our agenda was the butterfly walk which true to its name provided thousands of butterflies on a track winding through bushland adjacent to Horseshoe Bay.
We were introduced to cane toad racing. It turns out, cane toad racing has been going ahead every single week for over 40 years on Magnetic Island and is the longest running cane toad racing event in the world. The only times of the year it doesn’t go ahead is during the State of Origin finals (and more recently during the lockdown).
The founder, Verne Jack has managed to raise over $1.2 million dollars for the local surf lifesaving club.
Al, Leanne & Georgie joined us for the evening. The toads were auctioned off before each race, we had to be mindful not to wave our arms around, especially when the bidding was around $100+ per toad. Georgie (senior) was the quickest of us all when purchasing a toad for the express race (first hand in the air, purchased a toad for $40) that girl has awesome reflexes, no wonder she was such a good netballer! It was a fantastic experience and a lot of fun.
Thursday
We caught the bus from Horseshoe Bay to Nelly Bay and went to the medical centre to get our 1st COVID vaccination. Once completed we had lunch and walked along the scenic boardwalk back to Arcadia Bay stopping at all the fitness stations along the pathway so we could burn off some of our lunch. After purchasing some carrots from the general store, we went around to the old ferry terminal and fed the rock wallabies. They were tame and Georgie loved feeding them and even patting them.
Afterwards we caught the bus to the top of the hill leading out of Arcadia towards Horseshoe Bay getting off at the Forts walk. The walk leads to WW2 fortifications built to guard the entrance to the Townsville Port, providing spectacular and un-interrupted views of the bay and surrounding coastlines. We spotted our first of many drop bears in the trees along the track which were all part of the Pop Up North Queensland Art Festival. They also had some awesome metal art. (I took lots of photos as Mark is going to have soooo much spare time when we get back to Victoria 😉).
Friday
After getting schoolwork and domestic duties out of the way, we took the dinghy ashore and completed the walk to Radical Bay. The walk took us along a rocky path beside the shore before winding up through a gully between neighbouring hills and then dropping down into Radical Bay. Radical Bay had a lovely small sandy beach where sea turtles come to nest during November-March. The return trip involved stopping at the ice-cream shop once back in town, just to make sure they had not dropped their standards overnight.
Saturday
We picked up anchor at 0900 with Al, Leanne and Georgie on board who were joining us for the trip over to Townsville. As we came out of Horseshoe Bay the sea/swell of 1.5 metres greeted us on the nose for 30 minutes until we turned 90 degrees around the top of the island and then the swell was hitting us beam on which made for a slightly rolly ride. Mark put up the mainsail and changed our angle slightly which made the voyage a lot more comfortable.
We arrived at Breakwater Marina 2 hours later and slipped into our berth without a problem. After a late morning tea, Al, Leanne and Georgie were off to have a look around the CBD. They were going to catch the ferry back to Magnetic Island later in the day.
Townsville is a great city, very laid back with a great foreshore area and waterpark. SV- Fortuna had stayed an extra night at the marina so that we could catch up and say goodbye. The following day they would be continuing north towards Cairns and then onwards to Lizard Island. During our time together Harriett and Georgie had formed a close relationship which made it difficult when it was time to wave goodbye.
Sunday
After putting up the boom shades to provide relief from the heat, there were jobs that needed to be done. First off the rank was the laundry, which included duvets and mattress protectors. Once the work for the day was complete, we went for a walk along the foreshore which is known as “The Strand”. We followed the path right to the end which has a rock pool which is open 24 hours.
You finally used the boom shades! 😂👍😉